Enhancing the Foam Stability Using Surfactants Mixtures

Abstract

Abstract This work investigated experimentally the potential of the mixture of two anionic surfactants to reduce the mobility and enhance the oil recovery by generating stronger foam than that of the individual surfactants. Foams of the Alcohol Alkoxy Sulfate (AAS), Internal Olefin Sulfonate (IOS) surfactants and their mixtures were compared in bulk and in porous media. In bulk, after the foam has been generated by shaking, the foam columns decay was monitored to measure the foamability and foam stability. Furthermore, interfacial tension was measured for all surfactants solutions for explanation purposes and foam stability interpretations. Dynamically, Boise sandstone was used for surfactant-nitrogen co-injection for mobility reduction evaluation and foam viscosity measurements. Finally, the enhanced oil recovery was investigated by conducting core-flooding experiments for foam application after water flooding. AAS surfactant showed impressive foamability in NaCl brines, but medium to poor foam stability especially with crude oil. On the other hand, IOS was the best in Deionized Water (DW) especially with crude oil, but poor foamability in brine. The synergism was more obvious in brine than in DW. For instance, the mixture provided five times and four times longer foam half-lives than AAS in absence and presence of crude oil, respectively. Dynamically, the foam generation was observed by the pressure drop jump during the surfactant-gas co-injection. The mixture reduced the mobility 13 and 5 times in comparison with that of AAS. Finally, the application of foam flooding as a tertiary recovery process resulted in 7.5% additional oil recovery by the mixture compared with 2.5% for AAS.